World Teachers’ Day: Osun teachers seek implementation of TSS

ABIODUN FELIX, Osogbo

TEACHERS in Osun State yesterday unanimously called on the state government to as a matter of urgency commence implementation of the newly approved Teachers Salary Structure (TSS).

There have been no love lost between the state government and the state unit of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) over the implementation of the TSS.

While the Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola led administration assured that the implementation would commence January 2009, the teachers insisted that payment should commence August 2008.

The development led to altercation between the leadership of the NUT and the state Commissioner for Education, Alhaji Jelili Adesiyan with the former accusing the later of insensitivity to the plight of teachers in the state.

But at the World Teachers’ Day held yesterday at the Osogbo Township Stadium, the teachers in their thousands chorused the need for the state government to immediately commence payment of the new salary structure.

They further echoed their feelings through a cultural display by students of a secondary school in Iwo, where the students sang on the need for the state government to urgently address the need of the teachers with a warning that any administration that fails to encourage the teaching profession would incur the wrath of the people.

However, Oyinlola was represented by Adesiyan, at the ceremony reiterated the determination of his administration to continue to encourage education in the state. He noted that the TSS will be paid accordingly in due course. The highlights of the programme include match past by primary and secondary school teachers from all the 30 local government councils in the state.

In an address read by the state chairman of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), Mr. Saka Adesiyan, on behalf of the national deputy president, Chief Nelson Onem, the teachers bemoaned the inappropriate financing of the educational sector. According to him, "over the years, government budgetary allocations to education have continued to fall short of the UNESCO benchmark recommendation of 26 per cent. In particular the management and funding of primary education in Nigeria as enshrined in the 1999 Nigerian Constitution has been a subject of controversy and debate leading to varied interpretations and implementation by the state governments".

The NUT boss further said that, "whereas the constitution provides that it shall be the responsibility of state governments to manage and fund primary education with the participation of local governments, the practice now is that most state governments have outrightly abdicated this responsibility to the local government councils thereby making it difficult for the smooth operation of Primary Education in the country, especially in the area of payment of primary school teachers’ emoluments."